The KMM Blog features true crime writer Robert A. Waters’ analysis of cold unsolved cases and commentary about modern and historical crimes. Kidnapping. Murder. Mayhem. They're as old as human history, and as fascinating.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Doomsday Again

Countdown to Apocalypse
by Robert A. Waters

Forget Hale-Bopp. Forget Y2K. Forget Harold Camping’s failed prophecies. Those were just minor blips on the doomsday radar. Here comes the real thing, so the story goes, a confluence of events that on December 21, 2012, will destroy the earth.

Armageddon may be caused by galactic alignment, or magnetic pole reversal, or a near-collision with Planet X, even a black hole alignment deep in outer space--any or all these events may kill our planet or wound it so severely that it becomes uninhabitable.

Doomsday 2012 was foretold by Mayan priests who, when they weren’t sacrificing their own children to the gods, spent their time interpreting the movements of the planets and stars.

So, faced with almost certain extinction, what can we do to save ourselves?

Peter Gersten says that at 11:11 a.m., the exact moment of doom, he plans to jump off Bell Rock, a cliff in Arizona. Before he hits the ground, he's convinced a cosmic portal will open and he’ll be freed from earth's imprisoning time-loop.

Others are building secret, unshakeable compounds stocked with enough food to last for decades. Many of the rich and famous are said to have bought in.

Some people are moving away from the coast, or from known fault lines, or volcanic regions. Others are fleeing over-populated cities on the assumption that after Armageddon, survivors, if there are any, will riot, rob, and murder in an outburst of chaos unseen in history.

People are learning to farm, hunt, trap, fish, and prepare for an agrarian society.

What am I going to do on December 21, 2011? I think I’ll turn on George Noory’s “Coast to Coast” early-morning radio show and listen to the hype. Then I might eat breakfast, take a nap, and ask my wife to get me up before 11:11 a.m. (I want to watch the news to see if Gersten actually jumps and is transported to another dimension.)

Later that evening, we’ll drive over to the coast and maybe dine at some fancy restaurant in Daytona Beach. To celebrate the fact that Planet Earth has withstood yet another doomsday.

On the way home, I’ll ask my wife when the next apocalyptic prophecy will occur.